In less than a fortnight after its
formal launch, McKinsey's pro-bono project-India Venture 2000- to convert
ideas into a commercial reality has seen 2,000 teams (each with 1-5 members)
with ideas seeking funds.

That's not all. More than 250 top
professional from India and abroad have agreed to coach these ideas and
take them to position from where the venture capital funds will take charge.

A McKinsey spokesperson told Business
Standard that some of the key professional who have agreed to be a coach
the participants who get short listed include 30 Silicon Valley-based professional,
15-20 top lawyers and 20-25 leading venture capitalists. Some of the names
are K Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of
Infosys Technologies, SR Ganesh of TCS, BV Jagdeesh of Exodus, Alok Kejriwal
of C2W, Sourabh Srivastava of Infinity, AV Jayachander of ICICI Ventures,
Pradeep Kar of Microland, Nirali Sanghi of indiaparenting.com
and Sanjeev Bhikchandani of Naukri.com.

"The response has been simply overwhelming.
We launched the campaign only on January 26 and it is still a week away
from closing. More than 2,000 teams comprising of both individuals and
some Corporates as well have registered their ideas with us. These will
now be shortlisted and this list be finalized be February 29. Then, the
shortlistedCandidates will through an automated
process choose their coach. We expect several business plans to be ready
by April 15.After this, the plan will be handed over to a venture capitalist
for required funding and further hand holding." said Mckinsey spokesperson.

"The response has been from a mix
of young students especially from IITs as well as corporates with turnovers
in the vicinity of even upto Rs 500 crore. There are a lot of corporates
who are in various processes of implementing plans for e-business and have
applied to us to seek professional advise from the coaches", the spokesperson
added.

"We wanted to create a virtual market
where people with ideas could meet people with the right skills to implement
these ideas. This seems to have been achieved with so many persons accepting
the role of a coach and considering that they would need to invest their
time, which is so critical to their business, shows the commitment," said
the spokesperson.

Mckinsey in now planning to put in
place a training programme for mentors to young professional. It is planning
to jointly hold this with the Indus Entrepreneurs group which comprises
of Silicon Valley based venture capitalists.

Interestingly, the ideas have not
emerged predominantly from the metros but have from across the country,
which indicates that the e-revolution is now catching on.